Over 100,000 hectares hit by fire

Almost a sixth of the 580,000 hectares of virgin forest in Bale and Borena zones in Oromiya Region, southern Ethiopia, have been burnt or are still burning in multiple blazes, according to an emergency update from the Global Fire Monitoring Centre. The fires were quite patchy and not all areas within the forest path were fully burned, but an estimated 100,000 hectares were fire-damaged, it said. Analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery would be needed before precise data was available, it added. The southern parts of the fire-affected areas have received little or none of what rain has fallen in the past week, and major fires are still reported to be burning in Mada Wellabo and Nensabo (Bale zone) and in Shakiso (Borana zone), the report said. Official statistics for Bale zone as of 23 March indicated that 53,000 hectares had been burned, with 43 houses destroyed and over 5,000 beehives lost. The fires are believed to have been started by farmers clearing land or honey collectors smoking bees from trees.

[For daily analysis and monitoring of the Ethiopian fires, see: http://www.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe]